thecalling418 said:
IMO Shatteredzen does have some very valdid points, however. How often do Anarchists who dissent by not participating gov't ever change the paradigm. None. If they get successful enough on their own grass-roots scale, then they come in and arrest the leaders without trial for terrorism. If we don't have a place at the table, then how do we stand a chance? I ask this because I am myself unsure. Both sides of the argument have points I find worthy of consideration. I think the synthesis is found in a sound idea of Clarity. I also have a hope that our experiment in alt.currency can inspire and the people that the only regulation we need is the algorithms we choose.
To clarify, I am not advocating regulation, like you I pray for limited government and would much prefer a hands off approach that does not interfere with growth of the community since in the end they will still get capital gains or income tax from it anyways. While I am not in favor of new regulation, it is going to happen, that's life, once we hit critical mass and wall street or big business buys in those individuals will require legitimacy in the form of capital controls so they can sit in their ivory towers and trade it with the knowledge they aren't going to go to jail or lose their stake due to new laws.
What no one should want is these men being the ones that go to the table for us, they will regulate it away from the common man and create such a complex system of controls like they did in finance that it becomes an arcane art requiring special licensing and compliance officers just to stay on the law abiding end of. The strength of these currencies and assets is in their accessibility to us as normal people, they let us cut the middlemen out almost completely and their job is to keep you, the lay person, out of their complex web of adjustments and acquisitions so that you need them and they gain control over the instruments. These men are the priests of a religion that society is beginning to lose faith in, it is in their interest to control the dogma, it is in your interest to keep them out of the clergy if you want something new and different. The only way you can do this is to "put" the ethics of the community on newcomers, to make those wishing to speak for it do so with the voice of the individual, not the institution and you will not do that with any measure of success while calling for the legislators heads as an unruly mob of anarchists.
These men and women are professional politicians, the closest thing to monarchy we have, they are raised to be different and they go through their whole life in fear that the mob will one day wake up and throw them into the streets and demand justice, if they swing the gavel of power, what makes you think they would ever knowingly hand you those tools? What you have to do is approach them as friends, but make it clear that your support requires certain concessions, this is how lobbyists work, this is how decisions are made it is give and take with both sides having to feel they came out on top and it is the slow process of incrementally implementing your agenda over decades not years that wins out. Short term change is for the birds, anything can happen in the short term, if you want to fundamentally change what we have as a financial system and make it truly accessible to a broader range of people then you have to start by showing the system as an opportunity and not a threat. If you can convince people that you are peddling a new frontier of assets and corporations and wealth which is all subject to delivering massive tax revenue and doing so in a way where no one has to go to jail, that's a start, this is where we are now and the next step is showing these people where they can fit into this new world and why it doesn't have to be scary. This is why the Bitcoin foundation hired these professional lobbyists, not to sell out to "the man" but to play the game for the long term.
If you want to get your way you have to go all in, that either means violence (bad) or active participation in the system, if you show up at the front door in a hoodie waving a sign screaming about the new world order and anarchy, well Jack, your not getting in the lobby, that's life. Put on a suit, clean up and articulately voice your concerns calmly and rationally and play the stupid game. Taking the low brow approach doesn't work, act like a thug, get treated like one, these men and women live a life completely insulated from the unwashed masses, if you attempt to deal with them from an ignorant or violent approach there will be plenty of professional goons to deal with you, look at how the occupy movement came to conclusion, no change and a bunch of trash getting hosed off the pavement both figuratively and literally.
At some point, just as in our past, we will reach a point where peaceful negotiation and protest is impossible, we aren't there, heck the only barrier to entry is a shirt and tie and a haircut, maybe some deodorant. Don't give up and walk away because someone makes you act like a grownup. Acting like another one of the desperate poor will merely get you bread and circuses and nothing else, playing the game gets you a shot at what you want and you can't say you didn't get a chance if you haven't played.
